J. R. R. Tolkien derived the characters, stories, places, and languages ofMiddle-earth frommany sources, including numerous modern works of fiction. These includeadventure stories from Tolkien's childhood, such as books byJohn Buchan andH. Rider Haggard, especially the 1887She: A History of Adventure. Tolkien stated that he used the fight with werewolves inSamuel Rutherford Crockett's 1899 historical fantasyThe Black Douglas for his battle withwargs.

Tolkien appears to have made use, too, of earlyscience fiction, such asH. G. Wells's subterraneanMorlocks from the 1895The Time Machine andJules Verne's hidden runic message in his 1864Journey to the Center of the Earth.

A major influence was theArts and Crafts polymathWilliam Morris. Tolkien wanted to imitate his prose and poetry romances such as the 1889The House of the Wolfings, and read his 1870 translation of theVölsunga saga when he was a student. Further, asMarjorie Burns states, Tolkien's account ofBilbo Baggins and his party setting off into the wild on ponies resembles Morris's account of his travels in Iceland in several details.

Tolkien's other writings have been described byAnna Vaninskaya as fitting into the romanticLittle Englandism and anti-statism of 20th century writers likeGeorge Orwell andG. K. Chesterton. HisThe Lord of the Rings wascriticized by postwar literary figures likeEdwin Muir anddismissed as non-modernist, but accepted by others such asIris Murdoch.

J. R. R. Tolkien was a scholar of English literature, aphilologist andmedievalist interested in language and poetry from theMiddle Ages, especially that ofAnglo-Saxon England and Northern Europe. His professional knowledge of works such asBeowulf shaped his fictional world ofMiddle-earth, including his fantasy novelThe Lord of the Rings.^{[T 1][1]} This did not prevent him from making use of modern sources as well;^[2] in theJ.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, Dale Nelson discusses 25 authors whose works are paralleled by elements in Tolkien's writings.^[3] Thomas Kullmann and Dirk Siepmann state that "the tradition Tolkien owes most to ... is nineteenth- and early twentieth-century novel-writing."^[4]Holly Ordway, in her bookTolkien's Modern Reading, lists over 200 books, by 149 authors, that Tolkien certainly "interacted with", having written about them, mentioned them in letters or interviews, taught from them, heard the work discussed, owned the work or an anthology containing part of it, gave a copy as a gift, or is reliably reported to have been familiar with the work.^[5]

In the case of a few authors, such asJohn Buchan andH. Rider Haggard, it is known that Tolkien enjoyed theiradventure stories.^[3][6] Tolkien stated that he "preferred the lighter contemporary novels", such as Buchan's.^[6] Critics have detailed resonances between the two authors.^[3][7] Nelson states that Tolkien responded rather directly to the "mythopoeic and straightforward adventure romance" in Haggard's novels.^[3] When interviewed in 1966, the only book Tolkien named as a favourite was Haggard's 1887 adventure novelShe: "I suppose as a boyShe interested me as much as anything—like the Greek shard of Amyntas [Amenartas], which was the kind of machine by which everything got moving."^[8] Scholars have commented, too, on the similarities between Tolkien's monstrousGollum and the evil and ancient hag Gagool in Haggard's 1885 novelKing Solomon's Mines.^[9] Tolkien wrote of being impressed as a boy bySamuel Rutherford Crockett's 1899 historical fantasy novelThe Black Douglas and of using its fight withwerewolves for the battle with thewargs inThe Fellowship of the Ring.^{[T 2]}Jared Lobdell proposes thatThe Lord of the Rings is "an adventure story in the Edwardian mode", supporting this with multiple parallels.^[10]

Tolkien read and made some use of modernfantasy, such asGeorge MacDonald'sThe Princess and the Goblin.Edward Wyke-Smith'sMarvellous Land of Snergs, with its "table-high" title characters, influenced the incidents, themes, and depiction ofhobbits.^{[T 3][11]} Books by Tolkien's fellow-InklingOwen Barfield contributed to his world-view ofdecline and fall, particularly the 1928Poetic Diction.^[12]

H. G. Wells's description of the subterraneanMorlocks in his 1895science fiction novelThe Time Machine are suggestive of Gollum.^[3] Parallels betweenThe Hobbit andJules Verne'sJourney to the Center of the Earth include ahidden runic message and a celestial alignment that direct the adventurers to the goals of their quests.^[13] Tolkien acknowledged MacDonald's 1858 fantasyPhantastes as a source in a letter. He wrote that MacDonald's sentient trees had "perhaps some remote influence" on his tree-giantEnts.^{[T 4]}

A major influence was theArts and Crafts polymathWilliam Morris.Tolkien wished to imitate the style and content of Morris's medievalising prose and poetry romances such as the 1889The House of the Wolfings,^{[T 5]} and made use of placenames such as theDead Marshes^{[T 6]} andMirkwood.^{[T 7]} Tolkien read Morris's 1870 translation of theVölsunga saga when he was a student,introducing him to Norse mythology.^[14] The medievalistMarjorie Burns writes thatBilbo Baggins's character and adventures inThe Hobbit match Morris's account of his travels inIceland in the early 1870s in numerous details. Like Bilbo's, Morris's party set off enjoyably into the wild onponies. He meets a "boisterous"Beorn-like man called "Biorn the boaster" who lives in a hall besideEyja-fell, and who tells Morris, tapping him on the belly, "... besides, you know you are so fat", just as Beorn pokes Bilbo "most disrespectfully" andcompares him to a plump rabbit. Burns notes that Morris was "relatively short, a little rotund, and affectionately called 'Topsy', for his curly mop of hair", all somewhatHobbit-like characteristics. Further, she writes, "Morris in Iceland often chooses to place himself in a comic light and to exaggerate his own ineptitude", just as Morris's companion, the painterEdward Burne-Jones, gently teased his friend by depicting him as very fat in his Iceland cartoons. Burns suggests that these images "make excellent models" for the Bilbo who runs puffing to the Green Dragon inn or "jogs along behind Gandalf and the dwarves" on his quest. Another definite resemblance is the emphasis on home comforts: Morris enjoyed a pipe, a bath, and "regular, well-cooked meals"; Morris looked as out of place in Iceland as Bilbo did "over the Edge of the Wild"; both are afraid of dark caves; and both grow through their adventures.^[15]

In the 20th century,Lord Dunsany wrote fantasy novels and short stories that Tolkien read, without agreeing with Dunsany's irony, skepticism, or the use of dreams to explain fantasy away.^[3] Further, Tolkien found Dunsany's creation of names inconsistent and unconvincing; Tolkien wrote that Middle-earth names were "coherent and consistent and made upon two related linguistic formulae [i.e.Quenya andSindarin], so that they achieve a reality not fully achieved ... by other name-inventors (saySwift or Dunsany!)."^{[T 8]} The fantasy authorE. R. Eddison was influenced by Dunsany.^[a][17] His most famous work is the 1922The Worm Ouroboros.^[18][19] Tolkien had met Eddison and had readThe Worm Ouroboros, praising it in print, but commenting in a letter that he disliked Eddison's philosophy, cruelty, and choice of names.^{[T 9]}

Tolkien stated that he derived the phrase "crack of doom" from an unnamed story byAlgernon Blackwood.Holly Ordway identifies this as his 1909 novelThe Education of Uncle Paul, where the children tell him of the "crack between Yesterday and To-morrow", and that "if we'revery quick, we can find the crack and slip through... And, once inside there, there's no time, of course...Anything may happen, andeverything come true." Ordway comments that this would have attracted Tolkien because ofhis interest in travelling back in time.^[20]

David Lindsay's 1920 science fiction and fantasy novelA Voyage to Arcturus^[21] was a central influence onC. S. Lewis'sSpace Trilogy,^[22] and through him on Tolkien. Tolkien said he read the book "with avidity", finding it "more powerful and more mythical" than Lewis's 1938Out of the Silent Planet, but less of a story.^{[T 10]} On the other hand, Tolkien did not approve of the framing device that Lindsay had used, namely anti-gravity rays and a crystal torpedo ship; in his unfinished novelThe Notion Club Papers, Tolkien makes one of the protagonists, Guildford, criticise those kinds of "contraptions".^[3]

• 
  Frontispiece and title page ofGeorge MacDonald's 1858Phantastes, illustrated by John Bell. The novel was one of the first fantasies for adults.
• 
  A double-page spread in archaic style^[23] inWilliam Morris's 1896 novelThe Well at the World's End, illustrated with woodcuts onvellum by his friendEdward Burne-Jones
• 
  Bilbo's character and adventures match many details ofWilliam Morris's expedition in Iceland.^[15] Cartoon of Morris riding a pony by his travelling companionEdward Burne-Jones (1870)

Charles Dickens' 1837 novelThe Pickwick Papers has likewise been shown to have reflections in Tolkien.^[24]Michael Martinez, writing forThe Tolkien Society, finds "similar dialogue styles and character qualities" in Dickens and Tolkien, and "moments that elicit the same emotional resonance".^[25] Martinez gives as examples the likeness of theFellowship of the Ring's group of nine to Pickwick's group of friends, and of Bilbo's speech at his birthday party to Pickwick's first speech to his group.^[25]

The scholar of English literatureAnna Vaninskaya argues that the form and themes of Tolkien's early writings fit into the romantic tradition of writers like Morris andW. B. Yeats. In terms of politics, she compares Tolkien's mature writings with the romanticLittle Englandism and anti-statism of 20th century writers likeGeorge Orwell andG. K. Chesterton.^[26] Postwar literary figures such asAnthony Burgess,Edwin Muir andPhilip Toynbeeheavily criticizedThe Lord of the Rings, but others like the novelistsNaomi Mitchison andIris Murdoch respected the work, while the poetW. H. Auden championed it. Later critics have placedTolkien closer to the modernist tradition with his emphasis on language and temporality, while his pastoral emphasis is shared withFirst World War poets and theGeorgian movement. The Tolkien scholar Claire Buck suggests that if Tolkien was intending to create a newmythology for England, that would fit the tradition of Englishpost-colonial literature and the many novelists and poets who reflected on the state of modern English society and the nature of Englishness.^[2] Ordway notes that Tolkien remained interested inJoseph Henry Shorthouse's "strange, long-forgotten" 1881 novelJohn Inglesant, and suggests that its "moral conflict and competing loyalties" and its "providentially freeing climax consequent upon the exercise of pity" are reflected in "perhaps the key theme" ofThe Lord of the Rings.^[27]

Thomas Kullmann and Dirk Siepmann state that aspects ofTolkien's prose style and language inThe Lord of the Rings are comparable with that of nineteenth and twentieth century novelists, giving multiple examples.^[28]

• Shakespeare's influence on Tolkien
• Tolkien and the Celtic
• Tolkien and the classical world
• Tolkien and the medieval
• Tolkien and the Norse
• Tolkien's impact on fantasy

• Influences on J. R. R. Tolkien

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